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With NFL meetings on the horizon, here are 10 rule ideas that ought to be considered

A little help in calling pass interference? What could be bad about that? (Getty Images)

Starting Monday morning in Orlando, the NFL braintrust —- coaches, league execs, GMs and other team front-office types —- will huddle to go over tons of league business that will shape what we see on the field this fall. Scores of rule changes have been proposed. Some will warrant careful consideration; others will warrant roaring laughter (or should).

I don’t get a vote, but if I did, here are 10 changes I think would make for a more perfect NFL (you’re quite welcome, Roger):

1. More challenges: Imagine this plausible scenario: Coach challenges a call. Replays indicate the coach is right but the play falls into the proverbial “not enough to overturn” category. Later, coach challenges another call. He wins. Then, what? No matter how many bad calls ensue against that coach, he’s powerless to do anything, even though he was correct in challenging two prior bad calls. Current rule says you get a third challenge only if you win the first two. Nutty. My proposal: Two strikes and you’re out — coaches get unlimited challenges until they blow it twice.
2. A magnum of P.I.: Let’s start by making this perfectly clear: Any rule that goes by initials should arouse immediate suspicion. Pass interference is probably the most difficult and most talked-about call officials make. It’s also the most punitive since it’s a spot foul. I get the part about reluctance to use replays on judgment calls, but we’ve all seen pass interference calls that were horrible. So find a way to correct the blatant ones. In the meantime, let’s all give thanks that the NFL hasn’t gone down the same flopping cesspool that soccer has, with players acting to buy cheap calls. (Note to soccer lovers: I’m one of you, so spare me the nasty e-mails. If you enjoy watching Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Arjen Robben play-acting, good for you.)

3. Everybody dresses: Only 11 guys get on the field at a time, so when NFL teams run out of the tunnel with 46 players, that seems like a lot, right? Try feeling that way when your team has one of those days injury-wise or plays in ridiculous heat like, oh, Miami. I never did get the idea that a handful of players practice all week but are relegated to wearing shorts on game days because they’re designated as inactive. Doubly so on Super Bowl Sunday. (Washington is proposing expanding gameday rosters on a limited basis.)

4. Don’t call it “preseason”: Calling them “preseason” games rather than exhibitions is a bogus way of pumping up games that are usually as watchable as Nancy Grace. Nobody remembers who wins those things, so why have overtime? I’ll offer a trade-off: Eliminate overtime in exhibitions — another Redskins proposal — and I might consider using the word “preseason” once or twice.

5. Point-after laughers: St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher, a member of the competition committee, pointed out there were only five missed extra-point kicks last season — out of 1,267 attempts. Four of the five misses were blocks, leaving only one poor stiff whose kick failed to go through the uprights. Of all the rules targeted, this one has generated the greatest number of ideas to at least make it challenging. Rich McKay, committee chairman, figures if they move the line of scrimmage to the 20, the success rate for kickers would be about 90 percent. Yes, it’d eat into our rush-to-the-refrigerator time, but it’s a decent trade.

6. Throwback throes: Very simple. Pittsburgh Steelers can no longer wear those gawdawful jailbreak throwbacks. San Diego Chargers must always wear their powder blues. Glad we all agree. Next!

7. Bring-’em-back throes: The NFL recently introduced a route in which teams can bring back one player off injured reserve. Good idea, because the more good players on the field, the better. So why stop at one? The Redskins propose relaxing IR rules even more.7a (Bonus proposal!): Redskins cannot propose more rule changes in a given year than they have wins in said year.

8. Spread formation: Chances are, if you’re reading this, you love watching football. Can’t get enough. Yet on a typical Sunday, there’s more going on from 1-4 p.m. than one set of eyes can possibly consume, followed by maybe one or two decent games from 4-7 and an excellent matchup in prime time. Cris Collinsworth has floated the idea of having more than one game on Monday nights and nixing the Thursday nighters because the scheduling is conducive to poor play. It’s worth closer examination.

9. Ditch the red flags: Bill Belichick apparently is tired of having to dig deep into his sock to yank out the coaches’ red challenge flag. He’s proposing that when a coach wants to challenge a call, he calls timeout. Win the challenge, you get your timeout back. Lose the challenge, at least your socks aren’t all smushed.

10. Eyes all over: The Patriots also are proposing planting cameras on all boundary lines to assist with replay challenges. Assuming the NFL can scrape up a few bucks to afford it, why not?